How to expand your brand in 2021 without hustling, breaking your boundaries or losing sleep

Quick Preview:

In this blog post we are going to talk about:

• The 2021 ecosystem (and how you and your business belong in it!)
• Business expansion (and why it’s a paradox)
• 6 ways you can expand your brand in 2021 (by nurturing, not by hustling)

Weaving Your Business into a Chaotic World:

You felt it at 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2021 – this achey kind of optimism. You want so badly to start fresh, to feel renewed and yet, here we are, still sitting in the same world we were sitting in at 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2020.

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It felt different than past new years; as we read the digital “room” that day, we saw we weren’t alone. There was a resistance to setting big resolutions this year. Cautious optimism. And maybe tempered expectations for what this new year could bring.

Everyone, and every business, has experienced this past year differently and has therefore had to cope with this last year in their own ways.

This means, that we are all starting 2021 from a different place, emotionally, physically and professionally. The only way we’re going to find our way back to each other is to act authentically from whatever place we find ourselves in.

These are the 6 ways we can find our way back to ourselves, our business vision and our customers in 2021:

1. Listening to your customers
2. Helping your customers feel seen
3. Making sure your website is working hard for you
4. Having a clear, impactful brand message
5. Removing barriers that are keeping your audience stuck
6. Facing the barriers you might be feeling around “selling”

No matter where you are at this year, these steps are where you can begin. Think of them like a grounding exercise for your business – reminding you of your worth, of your customer’s worth and the vision you have for your business.

A Blessing to the Energized Entrepreneur:

If you feel energized, optimistic and ambitious, set those big goals without doubt (or guilt that you were able to get through 2020 with business success). Use that energy to pave a beautiful, welcoming path that others can follow you on in this new season. You can help other small businesses by, of course supporting them and collaborating with them, but also, advocating for small business support to your local government, sharing advice that has helped you through COVID, and connecting people to the people and resources that have helped you.

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A Blessing to the Exhausted Entrepreneur:

And if you have been deeply affected by the wounds of this last year, you and your business may still be in the stage of healing. You may need some time. Setting big goals may feel like too much right now, and we want you to know this – the decision not to set lofty goals doesn’t mean you have given up. Big, fast growth is exciting, but slow, thoughtful steps towards expanding your business, weaving it into this new 2021 ecosystem is also good. It’s very good.

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What do we mean when we say “Expanding”?

Expanding Your Business Might Not Look the Way You Think:

Like the true English nerds we are, we’re going to define some terms. And we’re going to start with a good ol’ science analogy:

When you inhale, your diaphragm actually has to contract and move downward, in order for your chest cavity to increase its space, and allow your lungs to expand into this space while filling up with fresh air.

Here’s what this means:

When we inhale, the expansion of our lungs requires the contraction of our diaphragm.

Maybe sometimes we have to contract, in order to expand. We have to sink in, to grow out.

Much like our diaphragms, the world closed in on us last year. We had to shrink into our homes, our bodies and ourselves like never before.

And yet, even as our world became smaller, eventually, something in us began to expand within us. Our range of emotions, our thought patterns, our visions and longings, the kind of questions we asked and the new perspectives we heard and listened to. We shone a light into some shadowy corners and excavated some emotional barriers. And as we did, we kept uncovering more and more of what felt authentic to each of us.

This paradox of sinking in and moving out felt like expansion.

Practicing Expansion For Your Mind and Your Brand:

The expansion many of us experienced in 2020 was like being in an open field, screaming into the darkness of the night sky. It was about releasing energy, and making noise. It was experimenting with how loud we can scream and listening to our echo, and experiencing our fears of loneliness, and feeling tiny and powerful at the same time. It’s watching the sun go up and back down and knowing it will do the same again tomorrow regardless of how we may fight it.

Maybe this is what it feels like in your business right now. Maybe you know you’re in the “messy middle” … no longer at the start of your journey and nowhere near the destination you had first set.

What do you do then? What do you do when you’re lost? When your destination doesn’t even exist right now because of a lockdown, or pandemic-safety issues, or tight times financially?

You breathe in. You sink into your body, your mind and you expand what you thought you were capable of. You let go of the way you wanted things to go last year. You let go of things that can’t happen right now. You let go of any mistakes you made along the way, and the million variables you have no control over.

And you see what is waiting for you there … something more than a sales target, more than mindless consumption, more than more Instagram followers. You’ll see a vision.

This vision will change the type of goals you want to set for 2021. It will make you want to set goals that are more driven towards sustainability, balance, wellness, inclusion and relationship-building – for you and your business.

We can’t tell you what that vision is for you. We can just say with 100% confidence that you are capable of creating good things in this world and it is the everyday action steps you take that create that vision.

6 Ways to Bring Expansion to You, Your Customers and Your Business This Year

With these content marketing tips

Small action steps. Val and I have always known that we’re playing the long game in our business and careers – slow, nurturing, mindful growth over time, unlike the hustling, draining forces that patriarchy pushes, that only abuse ourselves and others. Maybe you’re familiar with a few of them? …. saying yes to every networking event, saying yes to projects that don’t align with your value, having to look busy all the time, to answer every email no matter what time of day it is, using all your energy up on work, people-pleasing…

We do these things because we’ve been trained to think it’s what we have to do to build a better business. But what if there was a better way? It’s not an easier way necessarily, but it will bring more peace and ease to everyone involved.

It will make for a more enriching experience of life for you as a business owner, and for your customers.

Here’s how to practice expansion in your business without repeating the work-a-holic patterns we’re all trying to shake for good.

1. Listen to Your Customers: Ask for their thoughts. Read their words. Repeat their words and act on their words. As business owners, we feel the pressure of making decisions day in, and day out. After a while, we start to develop a bit of a god-complex, feeling like we have to be the one to have all the answers and call all the shots. But the truth is, we can get so wrapped up in our businesses that we can’t see outside of it. We’re too close, holding on tightly to a certain way we want things, and it’s left us with blind spots. This is the opposite of expansiveness! The very best remedy for our entrepreneurial-attachment issues is to listen to someone else’s perspective. How about start with the audience you are trying to help? Like really listen – with an open mind, and an open heart. When we do this, we’ll grow in awareness of our industry, we’ll loosen our grip on the things we thought we knew about our product/services and we’ll pivot our business to be the powerful forces of good they’re meant to be.
2. Make Your Customers Feel Seen: Respond to their comments. Use their name in emails. Remember their birthdays and most of all – make sure they see themselves visually on your marketing platforms. One of the many lessons we were forced to confront during quarantine in 2020 was our need to feel seen – collectively and individually. Since marketing and communications is all about telling stories and shaping the kind of stories our culture is telling, we want to make sure we’re making our customers the main character in those stories. To remind them that we know they exist, we value them, we care about their problems and we want to help them with solutions.
3. Maximize your Website and All it Can Do For You: Your website can take so much work off your plate. Imagine being able to focus on the part of your business you love most? When your website content has been written and designed by experts, you save administrative time, you convert leads with more ease, your onboarding process flows more smoothly and your customers leave associating you with the value, clarity and support they just found on your site. Is your website making your life easier or harder right now? If it isn’t working like your best sales person, definitely give us a shout.
4. Refine Your Brand Message: That messaging you strung together a few years ago when you started isn’t doing you justice. You’ve come such a long way since you first began and if your brand message no longer reflects that, it’s time to look for professional brand development support. When you have a fine-tuned message that is clear and concise, people will remember it! You’ll be top of mind. You’ll give them the information they need and reduce the number of questions you’ll have to answer. And when it’s written well, it will be a constant reminder to your audience of exactly how you can help them improve their life.
5. Remove Barriers for your Audience: Is confusion stopping them from moving to the next step? Are you alienating some audiences? Does making a purchase with you feel risky? For many consumers, making a purchase isn’t a spontaneous decision. We need to create safe spaces for our audience where they can make good purchasing decisions not out of fear or scarcity, but with clarity, ease and confidence. Give them the information they are looking for. Answer the questions they have. Remind them of their agency to change their life. And also, make sure your website is user friendly on desktop and mobile – don’t let “a frustrating website experience” be the reason someone doesn’t buy your product or service.
6. Identify Fears You Have Around “Selling”: You are not alone if starting a company brought you face to face with one of your deepest fears: asking people to listen to you, see you, believe in you… and buy from you. Many people, women especially, struggle with this aversion to selling and their deepest fear about owning a business is being seen as “too salesy” or “too pushy.” We have two things to say about this: first of all, rest assured, if this is your fear we can promise that it won’t come true. If you have the awareness to know the difference between a “sleezy, slimy” kind of pushy and just strong, confident marketing … you already know how to avoid being “that guy.” Do you get annoyed by someone sending one weekly email? No! You get annoyed by the brand that sends you 13 emails every day. Do you hate getting emails from your favourite brands? No! You signed up for that email list, you actually want to hear from them. And if you change your mind, you know where that “unsubscribe” button is. … and MOST IMPORTANTLY: the worst kind of “pushy” marketing is when the copy has been written poorly (ie. grammar mistakes, unrelatable stories, condescending tone and manipulative fear tactics). <<< THIS IS NOT MARKETING. This is just, well, manipulative fear tactics. Okay, so we’ve decided that you know how to tell the difference between these two things. So let’s talk about what’s really going on here: you’re scared of asking people to believe in you, your work, your craft, your art … you’re scared of the rejection that could come in the form of low post likes, bad open rates, un-subscribers, or even worse, criticism. My friends, it’s time we leave that in the dumpster fire that was 2020. 2021 is no place for entrepreneurs with incredible ideas who are too scared to share them. 2021 needs you, and needs people to know about you. And here is our permission to you:

You are allowed to talk about your business. You are encouraged to spread the word about your business. You are worthy of being heard. You deserve to take up space in your relative conversation, whatever the platform. You are ALLOWED to ask people to buy your product, to sign up for your services (after you’ve given them reason to of course).

Conclusion:

These might not sound like the kind of goals you usually set for your business in the new year. But then again, this year isn’t like any other new year. It’s time to set goals that will help us build better relationships, engage in more meaningful interactions and create more inspiring narratives for us to embrace in 2021.

This is what we call holistic marketing. If it sounds like a better approach to marketing than you were taught, we’d love to chat more.

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